Digital Overworld
by towarddaylight
Summary: After years of existing as only a stream of consciousness, Harry finally wakes up. It takes him half a second to remember he's not alone. It takes him twice as long to realize there's a deadly-looking knife in front of his face. HP/Overworld/Digimon.
1. PROLOGUE: a tale is told

AN: I hate reading ANs so I'll keep this short. This will be a HP/Overworld/Digimon crossover; HP because it's easy to write, Overworld because it pwns, and Digimon because I can. Pretty standard prologue for now, though I might change it later. No pairings plzthx.

* * *

_A tale is told of twin boys born to different mothers._

_One is dark by nature, the other light. One is rich, the other poor. One is harsh, the other gentle. One is forever youthful, the other old before his time._

_One is mortal._

_They share no bond of blood or sympathy, but they are twins nonetheless. _

_They each live without knowing they are brothers._

_They each die fighting the blind god._

—Matthew Stover, Blade of Tyshalle

* * *

**PROLOGUE**

.:a tale is told:.

* * *

Harry appeared silently in the middle of a clearing. After a quick look around to confirm he was in the right place, he started toward a hole in the side of a mountain several meters away.

_This is it._

"_Lumos_."

Lit by wandlight, the tunnel was barely wide enough for Harry to squeeze in sideways. Once inside, however, it opened up a bit into a fairly narrow corridor.

Harry walked.

* * *

Harry twisted out of the way of two spells coming in opposite directions, then ducked to avoid a third.

_Traps._

It made sense – the locket had already been stolen once before, after all. Voldemort would not take any chances.

Here the tunnel split off in two different directions: one going upward and to the left, the other seeming to turn backwards on itself. Harry followed the twinge in his scar and went left. Suddenly he felt the ambient waves of magic around him pulse once before stilling.

_Detection spell._

Fuck! Voldemort would know he was here – might be on his way right now. Harry panicked a bit and briefly considered giving up – maybe coming back later if he could – but realized Voldemort might move the Horcrux again. That could mean another month of searching, maybe more.

No. He had to go on.

* * *

"Voldemort."

Ten meters to the side, sharp crimson eyes flicked up and forward.

"Potter. What a…_pleasant_ surprise." Sarcasm, of course.

Feeling almost resigned, Harry pulled out his secondary wand. "…Likewise."

* * *

Harry darted behind a small transfigured boulder, out of breath and in pain. His right hand burned from poisoned cuts, blood dripped from his left shoulder and back, and he was blind in one eye. His left leg was completely numb, and he was pretty sure the purple curse Voldemort cast had scrambled his insides if the icy cold searing of his stomach was any clue.

He could only afford a few seconds' rest, so he quickly splashed a healing potion on his hand and charmed a section of the boulder transparent. Voldemort didn't seem to be doing a lot better than he was, but it was clear that the duel wouldn't last much longer – and Harry wouldn't win. He glanced around; the Horcrux was in the corner across from him. There was sure to be extra protections around it, but he planned to take those down by force.

"What's the matter, Potter? Tired already?" Voldemort's voice was cold and thin, and Harry saw him sneer. He didn't bother answering.

Harry snapped up a blue shield just in time to catch a pulsing globe of magic – a destruction curse – and three pellets of muddy yellow light that were probably more poisoned cutting hexes. Thinking quickly, Harry conjured several hundred muggle sewing needles and banished them all while the spell magic was still in the air, and then threw his last enchanted dagger before ducking back down behind the boulder.

After another second in which the needles were vanished and the dagger barely knocked off course, Harry felt a disturbance in the air. Immediately he jumped up apparated away.

Directly behind Voldemort.

_Boom._

Spinning around, Harry summoned one of his daggers lying on the floor and aimed at Voldemort's chest – but his aim was off, likely due to his bad eye – the blade sliced into his upper arm instead. Voldemort growled in pain or anger and started throwing spells again while Harry tried to ignore his own injuries. Harry pulled up his shield, but not quite fast enough – an orange spark made it through and the world flashed white. With the lack of distance between them and no boulder to deflect the nastier dark curses, Harry wore down quickly. He stumbled, slipping on a puddle of mixed blood and snake venom, and slammed into the ground. With Voldemort towering above him and few options left, Harry came to a quick decision.

* * *

Harry pulled out his phoenix feather wand and backed up against the wall, barely dodging a Killing Curse. "_Dirusnex fiendfyre!_" he barked, and white heat exploded from the tips of both wands. It missed Voldemort by inches. Both smirked, Voldemort thinking he had misaimed again and Harry knowing he had not.

The fiery stream shifted into the shape of a phoenix halfway through, striking the Horcrux dead on. A horrible high-pitched ringing reverberated through the room coming from the burning locket as the abnormally large magical fire licked down the platforms and across the ground.

The ringing grew louder and more intense, instantly giving Harry a very painful headache.

When Voldemort realized what Potter had done, he snarled and faced him. Seeing his enemy was distracted, he took advantage.

"_AVADA KEDAVRA!_"

* * *

Harry's head snapped up from where he'd been kneeling against the wall breathing painfully from the magical backlash and many aggravated wounds. His eyes widened as he saw the thicker-than-usual jet of malevolent green light headed toward him.

Harry tried to disapparate, but something was blocking him. He tried to remember when he'd been hit with an anti-Disapparition jinx, but as the emerald light came closer he discovered he didn't really care all that much. The curse was aimed too low for him to dodge, and the boulder across from him was too big to summon quickly. Scrambling for ideas, he conjured a small mirror in front of him and prayed that would work.

The glass shattered.


	2. CHAPTER 01: you could be shocked

* * *

**CHAPTER ONE**

.:you could be shocked:.

* * *

"Well, Luna. I'll see you later," Harry said. He stood, grabbing his phoenix wand in the same movement.

And then he was gone.

"Bye Harry," Luna spoke to the thin air where he had been, smiling faintly. "Come back soon, okay?" she said seriously, staring at the same spot.

She received only silence.

Her smile slipped for an instant before returning slightly strained. However, it turned vacant – as it always did – a short while later.

She remembered the river.

* * *

Luna remembered her friends Ron and Hermione, Neville and Ginny. She remembered their lives, their warmth; their friendship. She leaned against the wall and concentrated on a feeling of peace.

There were two tables in this room, both small and close together near the door. In one, an enormous book and two hands were all that could be seen above the table. In the other, a head of bushy dark brown bent forward in concentration. Across, another head of fiery red leaned back and raised her hand to the light.

"Hermione?" Ginny poked Hermione on the shoulder. "What do you think?" she questioned, lowering her hand and showing off her freshly-painted nails.

"Hm," Hermione said and looked up from her watercolors. She appeared thoughtful. "A little darker, I think," she announced, examining the colors on Ginny's fingernails. "And maybe some red, too, if you can pull it off," she continued before bending over her paper again.

Ginny nodded and reached for her Kneazle hair brush and red nail polish.

It was then that Ron walked in, dropping his cloak onto a chair next to the door. Then he came up behind Hermione and rested his chin on her hair. He glanced at her half-finished painting. "That's a really beautiful picture," he told her in a surprising flash of insight.

Hogwarts.

"Thanks." Hermione blushed faintly and smiled a bit.

"'Welcome, 'Mione," Ron returned, looking around at the rest of the small room. He saw the book Neville was flipping through. "Whatcha reading, Neville?"

Neville paused in his reading. "It's my plant encyclopedia," he explained. "You know that Moondust rose I got?" He looked sheepish for a moment. "Yeah, it's not working. I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong, but Moondust isn't exactly common here. Or anywhere, so there isn't a lot of information," he finished, returning to his book.

Then all was quiet.

Luna smiled at the scene laid out before her, but they both faded and she was left with only her thoughts.

Ginny had been the first to leave, locking herself up somewhere Luna didn't know (though Harry probably did). She had run off in tears, wailing about how "Tom was coming for her" and she "couldn't take it anymore."

She was never seen nor heard from again.

Hermione had been killed, poisoned by Nagini's bite; Ron by the same, but not before destroying the beast. Harry had tried so hard to save them both and really thought he had succeeded.

But it had not been so.

Neville was, at least, still alive – but not whole. He'd already been a bit insane in a quiet distracted way, but that changed when he had taken his revenge on Bellatrix. It happened when he'd Cruciated her over and over again until she finally died screaming.

It had broken his mind.

* * *

The glass shattered.

Harry's heart thudded painfully in his chest as he saw the green jet slam into the mirror in front of him with a delicate-sounding _ping_ and tinkle of broken glass. There the light seemed to split in two directions, one stream bouncing off the surface toward its caster.

The other continued its path toward Harry's face.

* * *

Luna's eyes were wide as she felt her spell dissipate.

The Nothing curse was one of the many she had created herself. It did exactly what the name implied, which was absolutely nothing. However, the basic caster/subject link that could be found in all curses was still formed. Being a curse that did nothing (and therefore had no effect that would wear off), this one was more permanent. Actually, it could be called soul magic and therefore Dark Arts, but Luna wasn't telling anyone that.

Luna had manipulated the spell's magic to stay with the subject's own magic tied to the body, only leaving when it couldn't find anything to latch on to.

Which usually meant the subject was dead.

_Harry…_

For the first time in years, Luna cried.

* * *

Harry woke up in blackness.

He tried to open his eyes but found that he couldn't, nor could he feel them at all. He tried his mouth, but it seemed he didn't have one. Then he realized he couldn't feel _anything_ – his arms, clothes, even the air around him.

_What the fuck?_

The not-quite exclamation seemed to somehow echo in his mind, and Harry wondered how a _thought _could seem to echo.

…_Potter?_

Harry was confused. Why would he address himself in his mind? Unless he was insane or something, which he was pretty sure he wasn't.

_**Potter, extend your magic.**_

Harry paused and decided to do what the apparent random voice in his head told him. Of course, it could be an _evil_ voice setting him up to die, but Harry didn't particularly care at the moment. He released the fairly light hold on his magic, expecting something to happen.

It…didn't.

That was new.

_I can't. Or something. _The thought didn't echo as it had before, but the voice seemed to know what he meant.

_**Then it is as I suspected.**_

Harry tried to make his mind echo again and found he could control it easily. _What did you suspect?_

_**We're stuck here**__, _the voice explained helpfully.

Harry didn't think that was a lot of information. _Where is "here"? And who are you?_

There was a long pause, and Harry asked himself if he really wanted to know.

* * *

As her uncontrolled sobbing finally quieted and a last tear trickled down her face, Luna smiled.

_Bye, Harry._

The stone floor felt cool on her skin as she leaned her head against the door.

_I'll see you later._

"That's a promise, Harry," she said into the silence.

"Come back soon, okay?"

* * *

_**We are in my Horcrux.**_

…_?!_

Harry almost couldn't believe his ears. Mind. Whatever.

_How the shit did that happen?!_, he all but yelled, then stopped and processed what the voice said._ Horcrux? Your…, _he broadcasted unconsciously, some things becoming very clear to him the more he concentrated. Including… _You have got to be kidding me, _Harry thought silently. Louder and somewhat cautiously, he inquired, _Voldemort?_

_**Congratulations, Potter. You know who I am, **_Voldemort snapped seeming frustrated. _**Now shut up and—**_

Harry felt his magic shift and suddenly became aware of his surroundings. To his disappointment he couldn't actually see, but the strange sense was there at least. He knew he was on the ground somewhere, likely in the same room he was however long ago. There were solid bits everywhere and Fiendfyre burned all around him.

_What did you do?_ Harry asked not really expecting an answer. He felt a vague sense of irritation that wasn't his and decided to just keep quiet for now.

* * *

Luna appeared with a light tinkle in the middle of a clearing. She looked around quickly and spotted a hole in a mountain not far away.

_Are you here, Harry?_

It had taken them almost three months to locate Slytherin's locket. The other five Horcruxes – diary, ring, cup, diadem, and snake – were gone; Luna was sure of it. This was the last one.

Voldemort had apparently gotten the real locket back but left the fake one where it was. The Horcrux had been re-hidden, though still somewhat nearby. It took some searching, but Luna had eventually found a painting of a clearing inside a glass frame. According to Harry, the Horcrux was actually located inside the picture; you had to apparate into it to get there – and Luna did. She and Harry had given Voldemort no reason to be suspicious at all, and all the research was done as quietly as possible.

"_With luck_," Harry had said, "_I should be in and out within an hour_."

"With luck," Luna echoed.

She walked.

* * *

Harry's mind snapped into focus as he sensed a familiar magical signature nearby.

_Luna._

* * *

The first thing she saw was Harry. His body was collapsed on the ground, hunched and on his side. Blood pooled under his shoulder and down his back; the hand she could see was burnt horribly and his left leg twisted at an awkward angle. His face was frozen in an expression of panic, eyes wide open and staring.

There was a foul smell in the air that seemed to come from behind Harry – Luna leaned over a bit and nudged the body just a bit. The smell intensified and Luna had to numb her nose to keep from throwing up her breakfast. Just behind the body was a small puddle of chunky reddish-brown liquid glowing slightly purple that if Luna had to guess was probably feces. She shuddered, thinking of the pain Harry must have been in his last moments of consciousness.

Not wanting to see more, Luna cast a few cleaning spells and put a portkey chain around Harry's neck. She reluctantly did the same for Voldemort before activating both chains and watching the two bodies disappear.

* * *

Harry, in his strange thoughts-only state, tried to telepathically communicate.

_Luna, I'm here! In the locket!_

Harry felt Luna stop abruptly and come closer. The Fiendfyre vanished.

_Yes, right here – in front of you, Luna!_

But at the last second her body slid to the side. She bent down and picked something up – a wand? Then she walked to another spot and picked up two more.

"Vol—mor—yew—ond…?" Her voice was faint and uneven, only slightly clearer than if she had spoken underwater. "Holi—rose—ood, —ari—too."

After a slight pause, Luna proceeded to collect everything of value in the room while Harry looked on in resigned detachment. As she picked up the last enchanted dagger, he tried one last time to get her attention.

_I'm in the locket, Luna. Pick it up, dammit!_

* * *

Luna stepped carefully over the rubble surrounding what she suspected was the Horcrux. It spoke to her, as they all did – she ignored the call, knowing there might still be broken pieces of soul in there. Slowly, with only her thumb and index finger, she picked it up and brought it to eye level.

It didn't feel like a Horcrux.

Still wary, Luna dropped it into a magic-less pouch on her thigh. Finished, she looked around the now-empty room and disapparated.


End file.
